Students and staff at Jaffna University lit candles on May 21 to remember the Tamils who died in May 2009 when the Sri Lankan army carried out a genocidal onslaught in the final days of the island's decades-long civil war.
Tens of thousands of men, women and children were killed as Sri Lankan government forces bombarded them from land, sea and air.
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Trade unionists and community activists held a forum called "After the budget, build the fightback" in Melbourne on May 24 organised by the Socialist Alliance to discuss joint actions to campaign against the federal budget.
You know Australian politics has reached a low point when a lunatic billionaire coal magnate driving a Rolls Royce manages to appear less heartless and out-of-touch than the government.
Lock the Gate released this statement on May 28.
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The nation鈥檚 air quality has declined dramatically in the past decade and coal mining has been identified as the biggest source of harmful respiratory particles in our air, a new federal government report finds.
The National Pollutant Inventory report found Queensland is the most polluted state in terms of the levels of particulate matter with eight of the nation鈥檚 top ten particle emitting coal mines located there.
Why would the victim of a brutal military dictatorship appoint someone accused of covering up the regime鈥檚 crimes as ambassador to the country in which she once sought exile?
This is the question many Chileans are asking after the new government of President Michelle Bachelet named James Sinclair as Chile鈥檚 highest diplomatic representative in Australia.
In response, several groups have begun organising a campaign against the appointment.
More than 250 people gathered outside the office of the Northern Land Council in Tennant Creek and marched to the local Peko Park on May 25, protesting against the proposed radioactive waste dump at Muckaty in the Northern Territory.
The Muckaty site is part of a Land Trust, which is shared by five interrelated groups 鈥 Milwayi, Ngapa, Ngarra, Wintirku and Yapayapa.
Traditional owners call the Muckaty Land Trust 鈥淢anuwangku鈥. Members of all five groups were present at the rally.
The Australian government鈥檚 review of the February violence on Manus Island leaves critical questions unanswered and does not call for the detention camp to be closed.
Robert Cornall鈥檚 107-page administrative review, released on May 26, includes a detailed account of 23-year-old Reza Berati鈥檚 death and identifies a Salvation Army employee as instigating the attack.
Aboriginal people and their supporters took to the streets on National Sorry Day on May 26 to protest against government departments taking Aboriginal children from their families. Actions took place in 15 towns and cities around the country.
The rally in Sydney was organised by Grandmothers Against Removals, Indigenous Social Justice Association and the Stop The Intervention Collective Sydney.
Memo to concern trolls Annabel Crabb and Howard-era minister Amanda Vanstone: take your own advice and stop being selfish thugs and bullies. And if Fairfax journalist Crabb is going to criticise student protests for being 鈥渙utdated鈥, she should drop the 1950s style housewife persona.
In a May 23 Sydney Morning Herald article, Crabb said she was 鈥渃oncerned鈥 that thousands of students taking part in a recent national day of action against increased university fees were going about things the wrong way. Take notice students of Australia. Activism, you鈥檙e doing it wrong.
With right-wing parties gaining footholds throughout the world, Colombia followed suit with the far-right party, Democratic Centre (CD) winning with a narrow lead in the first round of the presidential elections on May 25. CD won just under 30% of the vote.
The election presented Colombians with a five-party choice, ranging from the leftist Alternative Democratic Pole (Polo) with Clara Lopez to the CD's Oscar Ivan Zuluaga and his major rival, incumbent President Juan Manuel Santos from the Social Party of National Unity.
An Aboriginal tent embassy was set up on May 26 to reclaim the historic Redfern Block.
Veteran Aboriginal activist Jenny Munro says the Block is Aboriginal land and the Aboriginal Housing Company was wrong to clear the Aboriginal residents out of it and open it to greedy developers.
The tent embassy is steadily growing in size and the call is out for solidarity. Drop in, show your solidarity and see what you can do to help. An "Abbott-proof fence" is going to be built on the site, embassy activists said.
Photos by Peter Boyle.
The demand of tens of thousands of people who marched through the streets in cities around Australia on May 18 was clear. They want the federal government鈥檚 killer budget blocked.
They want Labor, the Greens and independents to band together in the Senate to block the major bills implementing the attacks on Medicare, education and welfare.
They want the supply/appropriation bills (the three bills that authorise the funds from treasury required by the government to carry on its day-to-day business) to be blocked, thereby forcing the government to go to a new election.
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